Where Eagles Fly
by Flowerofthecourt
Summary: The war between Scanra and Tortall still raves. New comers arrive to Tortall, to find love, adventure and a place to forget the gruesome past.This is a story of finding love and how it hits some unexpectedly.
1. An Arrival of Fall

Where Eagles Fly 

A/N:    I do not own any character in this story unless they are ones I make up.  I hope you all like it. 

            The fort of New Hope stood quietly looking over the sloping hills that grouped around it.  It was a breezy day, the currents of the river water were flowing swiftly, making little splat type noises as it trickled off the rocks. 

            Shouts came from the gate, stirred a girl or more really a young woman out of her daydreaming. She hurried to the gate; three men on horseback greeted her.

            "What news Dom?" The girl asked.

The man removed his helmet, revealing his very dark blue eyes usually light and casual, now furrowed with concern.

            "Commander Kel," He saluted, " When my men came back from hunting the game, we found five people lying in the dirt. I think they are refugees from Scanra."

            "Are they alive?" Kel exclaimed, "Where are they?"

            "They are alive, but in poor condition. I think they have been traveling for at least several days. Ciel is bringing them now on horse."

            Kel sighed relieved, even with them being in not the very best condition, it was still better then dead.  She turned and signaled to Adler, a guard. " Go tell Neal to prepare five beds in the medical wing." 

            "Aye," he saluted. 

"What's their status, are they badly hurt?" Kel asked Dom.

"Their leader, I couldn't get a name out of the rest of them, she looks as though she lost a great deal of blood. She had a large slash up her arm.  The rest are children.  They look starved and shook up, but its nothing that can't be fixed."

            Kel opened her mouth to reply, when Ciel returned. He had two horses at hand.  Three children sat on one, not one of them looked older then seven.  The other horse carried a adolescent girl, it was obvious she had been crying.  She was supporting a young woman who apparently was her relative of some kind. They each had the same features.  The young woman was passed out; the makeshift bandage on her arm was freely dripping blood. 

            "Quick Dom, help me take her, we need to get her to Neal," She quickly reached up to take the woman.  Her relative refused to let go. 

            "No..no.. Don't take her, she's my sister.." The girl mumbled and clutched the girls' shoulder.  She was barely making sense.  

            "Shh, shhh its ok, we are going to take care of her. We are going to clean her up a little bit, " Kel said gently and pried the girl's fingers away.

            She nodded, tears slipping out of her eyes. "Amarette, that's my sister, she's going to be alright right?"

            Kel nodded. "She will be just fine."

"What's the news, Neal?  Is she awake yet?"  Neal shook his head. "Nay on that one. I bandaged her arm though now.  She developed a fever.  She should be awake in a few days. But her arm will need some time to heal."

            Kel sighed.  It was a year for arm injuries. Her arm was still even in a sling after the ordeal in Scanra, which happened about two months ago.  The war had slacked since the defeat of the nothing man and his machines.  It was now Toratlian men fighting just Scanran men, with Tortall having the cutting edge.

            " I think the girl's name is Amarette, it's what her sister calls her."

Neal nodded "Aye, I put the rest of them in the room opposite of this one."

            "Can you get anything out of them?  Something terrible must have happened for them to be in this bad of condition."

            He shook his head. "The older one, Danae, was to distraught to talk.  Her name was the only thing I got from her. And the others, they are too little to know what's going on."

            Kel nodded and rubbed her hand against her forehead.  A headache was beginning to form.

            "Did u give them a sleeping potion?"

Neal nodded.

            "Good, maybe we can get something better from them when they have rested."

A/N: There was the first chapter, I hoped you liked it.  Please tell me what you think.


	2. A Night of Horrors

A/N:  This chapter 2.  In this chapter you will learn more about Amarette without actually meeting her.  You will also  get a feel for her sister Danae

Three days later, Kel was working quietly in her room.  It was a pleasant evening with slow steady breeze.  They had a growing population at New Hope and the fort had only been meant as a temporary establishment and it was now threatened with over population.  Blue prints had been made to expand the fort and build it up into a growing a populous town.

            Someone knocked on the door, disturbing Kel out of her thoughts of how much timber they needed. Before she said "come in," however, Neal burst in with a disturbed look on his face. 

            "Why do you even knock," Kel grumbled.

            "I like to be polite."  She snorted.

" So, what's up," Kel said

            "Amarette woke about twenty minutes ago."

"That's wonderful! Can she speak yet?"

            "Oh yes. She can speak."

"And…" Something in his voice bothered her.

Neal sighed and took a seat. " I believe she has received some abuse of some kind by a male or even raped."

            Kel sat back in her chair. "How did you come by this?"

"As I said she woke maybe twenty or thirty minutes ago.  I was attending her.  Her bandage was starting to get dirty and required a change.  She woke as I had half way unwrapped her arm.  She looked at me and started to scream, 

"Get away from me monster, demon!"  I tried to quiet her down, I told her it was all right and that I was here to help her.  She turned to look at me; in her eyes were fear and hatred, but most of all hatred.   She started to back away from me..  and pushed back against the bed. Her eyes darted all around.  I thought she was looking for a weapon." 

            "You did not leave her alone did you?" Kel asked, horrified.

"Of course not, I'm not an idiot."

            "Then who is with her?"

            "Yuki."

"How did she react with Yuki? Do you know?"

" I left the room soon after.  It was obvious she was scared of me.  But the thing I didn't know was if she was in a mental insanity state or if she was just scared of me. I brought Yuki in, but I did not go in the room with her.  I sat on the outside of the door listening. She was still scared, but it was not the same kind of terror she had, when she was with me. She wanted to know where she was and where was Danae and the others. Yuki told her, and that she was at New Hope.  Immediately the girl felt safer and let Yuki attend her. That's where I left them and came to you."

            " So she is afraid of men, its obvious the others are not or else they would not let you see them.  So what happened to her that did not happen to them?" Kel wondered out loud.

            Neal shook his head.  "I know not, I don't think they really know themselves."

"I'll speak with them tomorrow." Kel said. 

They were sitting on their beds, when Kel arrived at the hospitable wing. There were two little girls who looked to be about five or six, a little boy who looked to be about three and then there was Danae. 

            She still looked frightened but she had been cleaned up and looked much better. Her hair was dark brown, and had grey eyes.  Her nose was slightly curved and had a weak chin. She was pretty, but much to thin. The children resembled skeletons. 

            Kel kneeled down in front of the children and asked for each of their names; Falia, Nataine, and Ustin. She spoke with them quietly for a few moments before she turned to Danae. 

            " I don't know if Neal told you, but Amarette woke up yesterday.  You will be able to see her this afternoon, after she's rested some more

            Danae nodded. 

"I'm Kel, the commander here and I need to know what happened where you lived."

            The girl looked up, her eyes big. She began to tremble. 

Kel put her arm around the girl.  "Its alright, I know you don't want to tell but I need you too.  It will help your sister."

            She nodded.

Kel paused and waited. 

            "I don't know really what happened." Danae began.  " I mean I wasn't really there when it did."

            "What do you mean?" Kel asked. 

" We lived in a village up north a little bit. We had a lot of soldiers running through often.  I didn't like them much."

            "Why?"

"They always needed things. Food, water, and they also wanted children."

            Kel remained silent, but something close to rage was burning in her soul. 

"They said they needed them to help with the war effort, so they would pick the healthiest ones and took them."

            She took a deep breath and continued. 

" They kept on coming back and back, I don't know where they took them all. I heard one solider say that they would be in the care of a person named Stenum or something like that."

            She looked at Kel then.

" I don't know what ever became of them."

Oh I do, Kel thought. 

" To prevent them from taking more, we made a hiding place, where all the children would hide.  I hide with them, since I not considered an adult yet."

"The hiding place was un underground room dug under the barn.  It was not hard to find, but the soldiers were very careless. So they were not very suspicious.  They skipped us about three or four times before they began to wonder."

            "They came again about a week ago.  We always kept a guard out so we would know when they were coming so we had time to store food and hide the children."

            "  It was a special occasion that night.  We had a feast with all the food we could find. Cause Amarette and Galyn were formally engaged that night."

            "Amarette was betrothed?" Kel asked shocked. The way she had reacted to Neal, led her to believe that she had disliked men for a while. 

            Danae nodded and swallowed. 

"The guard signaled us and we hid everything that looked as though we were having a celebration.  I was put in the room.  I heard many shouts and screaming."

            She stared to shake.

"Then… then I smelled smoke.  They were burning our whole village down."

            "I started to scream for help, we had no way of getting out."

"Then I saw Amarette.  She was bleeding and there were tears in her eyes.  She got us out and then that's when I saw."

            "Saw what Danae?"

"Everyone was dead.  Everyone, they had killed everyone. My mother and father, all of their mothers and fathers."  Danae trembled and motioned to the others. 

            "That's all I know."

Kel leaned back, and clenched her fists. It was absolutely horrible what those men had done.  They practically starved them, took their children even though the nothing man was gone, and then they destroyed their village.

            It was a ploy, stealing all their children.  The man who used them was dead.  It was an act of desperation.  The leaders wanted to show the people an illusion that they were still winning the war. King Muhatma was a bloody filthy coward.

            Kel turned to Danae.  "Than you, I know it wasn't easy telling this back to me. You and everyone else is safe here. I'll bring Yuki in here.  She'll take you to see Amarette."

A/N: I hoped you liked it. In the next chapter you will get to meet Amarette and learn from her eyes, her gruesome past. 


	3. Fire and Ashes

 A/N:  Chapter three is up.  I know the beginning is a little slow right now, but you have to bear with me on this one.  It will get a little bit more fast pace once the characters are more developed. 

Kel relayed all the information she received from Danae to Neal that night. By the time she was finished, Neal looked absolutely livid.

            " They are pigs, filthy rotten smelly pigs!"

            "I know."  Kel said quietly.  " We now know what happened.  But we need to talk to Amarette.  She was the only one left alive who was not hiding. I need to know why."  

            Neal was silent, which was very unusual.  He liked hearing his voice so much; he made long speeches every five minutes. 

            "She was betrothed," he murmured after awhile.  " It must have been the happiest moment of her life. Only to be taken away from her in an instant."

            Kel shook her head. "No one, not even the filthiest scum deserves to have that done to them.

            Yuki was re-applying Amarette's bandage when Kel came in the next day.  It was uncanny how her and Danae looked alike. Each of them had the dark hair and grey eyes.  But what was a little different about Amarette was just the way her eyes looked at the world.  They were not scared like her sister's, they were determined and hard.  She looked at her a little hesitant at first, before she saw that Yumi and her greeted quite warmly. 

            Amarette was not exactly sure what to think of about this woman.  She had sandy colored hair and a build that resembled a boy's.  She also was wearing a tunic and leggings, not a dress.  

            " I'm Keladry of Mindelan, the commander of New Hope." She told her. 

Amarette nodded and stammered, "I'm Amarette of the Shihoki tribe. 

Kel smiled. The girl might hate men but at least she had pride. "We, the people of New Hope are glad that you are making a recovery."

            Why do nobles always think they need to make courtesy speeches? Amarette wondered, it doesn't help them any. Just makes them look stupid. 

            "Thank you." 

Kel sighed and waved to Yuki to come over. She whispered something rapidly in her ear, before Yuki left, leaving Amarette and Kel alone. 

            "Where is she going," Amarette asked. 

            "I asked her to leave."

            "Why?"

            "I need to ask you something."

Amarette sat up, suddenly wishing she was far away from this place.  She didn't want this Keladry person to ask her question.  She didn't want to revisit that memory.  It was too painful.

            "We talked to your sister Danae. She told us what happened to your village and how she was in hiding.  How did it happen?  You were the only one left alive that was not in hiding."

            Her voice seemed distant in Amarette's head.  She closed her eyes as two tears slipped out. 

            _Fire and ashes. They came like a thundering storm.  The hooves of their beasts crushing the ground before them.  They quickly covered anything that looked as though they were having a celebration.  Flowers were torn from the girl's hair, as the braids were unraveled in the men's._

_            "Where are they?" They growled.  "Where are the children?" Silence penetrated the air, as they refused to answer. _

_            "You prefer to be Martyrs then?" Their commander smiled, showing blackened teeth. "Perhaps we can have a little fun." He surveyed the crowd.  Lust grew in his eyes; the fire of his soul became unclean._

_            "You're a pretty one, who claims you?"  He yanked her to him, his hand on her waist.  She turned her head away, his breath was stale and he stank of pigs. He squeezed her cheeks, forcing her to look at him._

            "I think I will have a celebration of my own tonight," He said as he studied her.  His men hooted.

            "Amarette?" Kel said, shaking her solder gently.  She glanced up at the female commander before quickly looking down at her lap.

            "They… they accused us of being martyrs for hiding the children."__

_"Over my dead bleeding corpse!" Galyn cried.  The Scanran commander sneered, and pushed her into his men's arms._

_            "I think we have just found who claims her."_

_"Galyn NO," she screamed as he pulled out a dagger and made a run at her captor.  She struggled to get out of their hold. He made a slice at the commander, managing to make a thin cut.  The man became enraged and drew out his axe.  Galyn swerved and ducked under his blows.  One of the man's men came from behind and cut him down with his sword as the other chopped him with his axe. _

_            "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"  She never stopped screaming. Never stopped screaming._

            "They killed us all." Amarette mumbled.

            "But not you, why?"

            "Because I was beautiful."  Tears slipped out.

His breath was hot on her face, his smile disgusted her.  She would not cry out, she would not give him the satisfaction.  She just looked at him with un-checked hatred.

_            "Scream!"_

_            "No."_

_"Bitch, you do as your told!"_

_            "No."_

_"Scream!"_

_He drew out his sword and sliced through her skin from her neck down her right arm.  Still she did not make a sound. The hot iron pierced her flesh, the world went red as darkness fell. _

            "Amarette, did someone rape you?"

She looked up. Tears were spilling down her face.

            "Yes." She whispered. 

All of them were dead; Mother, father and most of all Galyn.  Amarette turned over on her bed, hiding the tears in her pillow.  It was the dead of night and long since past her visit with Keladry. 

            Oh how she missed Galyn!  She wanted him to come back, hold her and whisper to her that everything would be just fine.

            "I want to die," Amarette whispered, "The Black God please claim me.  I have no will to live." 

But then… what would happen to the others. Danae was not strong. She could not take care of them.  But who was to say that she could do a better job then her sister?

            "Why was I given this burden," she murmured, "I'm not a parent, I'm not even married."

            Tear came in steady strides, I was going to be married, she thought, I was to be married to the love of my life.

            Hatred burned with inside her soul.  She would kill all those men that took away everything she loved. She would train to become a warrior. She would meet those soldiers again.  Their faces were so clearly imprinted on her mind.  She would show them pain. Pain like the pain they inflicted on her. 

            Amarette smiled, she now had cause keeping her alive

A/N: Hoped you like it.  I know it might seem a little weird right now.  If Tamora Pierce's books were not fantasy and instead historical fiction it would most likely be set in the medieval ages.  Rape was a common thing back then, but that's not what most people think about when they think of the word Medieval. They think of knights in shinning armor and princesses being swept off their feet. Or maybe that's just me.  The knights and so on are only one part of those ages. And unfortunately rape was a major part of that time.  


	4. Same Mother, Two Different Children

A/N:  Thankyou for reviewing my story. I got a question on where I found the name Amarette.  It is partly a French name and partly my own creation.  The original French name was Amarante before I butchered and changed the name.  Dom is also formal with Kel for a reason in the first chapter. It was showing rank.  I know, that mostly everyone who will read this already knows that Kel is the higher rank.  But I was just reinforcing it.  Their conversations will become more casual like friends in later chapters.  Hahaha, yes I know it's almost impossible to think that anyone would be scared of Neal.  But look at it from Amarettte's perspective.  She doesn't know where she is, she had been raped, and a unknown man was leaning over her. I think I would have been frightened of him too!  Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Yuki unwrapped her bandage the next day.  It was the first time Amarette really looked at her wound.  It was thin, shallow, red and ugly; it would leave a scar.  She watched as Yuki reapplied ointment to it.  It stun and burned.  She shut her eyes as though the pain would go away when she did so.

            "All done." Yuki said. 

Amarette opened her eyes.  The bandage was neatly done and the old was in the waste barrel. 

            "When will I be able to take it off for good?" Amarette asked

" In a few days when it's done healing."

Amarette sighed; she had hoped to take it off that night.  It seemed well enough now.

"When can I leave this room?"

"When I get you a change of clothes in a few minutes."

            A huge smile crossed Amarette's face.  She would finally be out of this wretched bed.  She could walk around, see the sights, and be with her now family.  Yuki disappeared for a few minutes and came back with two outfits.  One was a plain common dress.  It had short sleeves and had a loose collar.  It was rather hot out there, after all.  The other was men's clothing; it was a white cotton shirt with a brown tunic and leggings. 

            Amarette gaped.  Men's clothing! Did women really around here wear men's clothing?  Yuki wasn't wearing a tunic, but then again she wasn't really wearing a normal dress either. It was different.  The dress was thick and straight.  It did not curve out like normal dresses.  It was tied in the front with a stiff sash and the sleeves were long and rectangular. Defiantly not the normal dress.

            "Amarette!"

She looked up, and a big smile grew on her lips.

            "Danae!"

The girl ran over and hugged her sister. Amarette laughed as the little ones jumped on her, but careful not to disturb her arm. 

Danae stepped back and Amarette got a better look at her.  She was wearing a rustic blue tunic and leggings. She felt the jaw of her mouth go down.

            "You're… you're wearing men's clothing!"

Danae blushed. "I know.  It's so much more comfortable then dresses."

            Amarette frowned.  She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of women wearing men's clothing.  Men were disgusting pigs, well most of them.  The ones she loved and respected were dead.  Did women really want to be like them?

            She sighed as Danae helped her out of bed.  Yuki took the kids outside while Danae helped her change.  It was quite difficult getting dressed with one arm.

            "Which one do you want?" Danae asked, holding up the dress and the men's tunic.

"Do all the women here where tunics?"

"Not all of them, but most of them do in the summer."

"I'll take the dress."

"Are you sure?"

Amarette suddenly lost her temper. "Yes damn it I'm sure.  I know what I want to wear."

Danae shrank back trembling.

Amarette looked down, ashamed of herself.  She had no right to speak to her sister so.  She had done nothing wrong. 

            She spread out her arms, and beckoned Danae to her.

            "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to snap.  It's just I don't agree with women wearing men's clothing."

Danae, with her eyes big, said. "Then I will change!"

Amarette sighed.  "No, no I don't want you to change.  You do not have to do or wear everything that I approve of.  You wear what you want."

            The girl nodded. 

Amarette shook her head. Danae needed to be more independent.  When they lived at the village, she was just the same.  She wanted to please everyone. And _She _knew from experience that you cannot please everyone.

A/N:  This chapter really has no other point, then just to analyze some of the main characters a little bit more.  Danae looks like her sister, but when you compare their personalities, they are as different as day is from night. Amarette is the stronger of the two, and Danae is the weaker.  As obvious as that seems, if you look at it in a different light, it is also very subtle.  If you do not see it now, it will become clearer in later chapters.  Anyways I hope you liked it, and please review!


End file.
